Chapter 7
“Do you think it was meant to lure me here? Or was done out of revenge?”
“Hard to say. I don’t want to get hung up on that. The bottom line is, it takes some kind of an asshole to do something like this.”
“You’re not kidding,” she said. “He shouldn’t be allowed to get away with that.”
Rory nodded. “Give us a chance to catch him.”
“Is it safe to go home?”
“I suspect they’re watching us,” he commented.
A creepy sensation crawled over her skin. “Meaning?”
He shrugged. “Meaning, if this was a set up, they could be preparing to attack. That or they’ll try to follow you home.”
“Now that they know about your truck?”
“Doesn’t matter if they do or not,” he said. “Now they know you aren’t alone.”
She glanced around and said, “Maybe we shouldn’t leave then.”
“What do you think they will do?”
She turned to look at him, determination in her gaze. “If they’re actually running down animals to bring me here, maybe we should make sure I am here.” She could feel her stomach knot at the thought of somebody deliberately hurting an animal. “I can’t have more animals hurt because of me.”
“It’s not very comfortable here,” he warned. “We could be staying all night for nothing.”
She raised her eyebrows. “I don’t really care about comfort. I care about them not hurting anybody else.” She waved a hand toward the surgery room and the dog she now had safely in a cage. “What if they come back and hurt these guys?” She narrowed her gaze. “Why don’t you drive away? Lead them off. Get some of the guys to help, and maybe you can catch these assholes. I will stay here and guard the animals.”
“Lead them away and leave you here?” He stared at her in shock, then shook his head. “Not happening.”
She frowned at him in frustration. “It’s a perfect opportunity to set a trap for them. Flynn is outside somewhere, right?”
He nodded. “That’s true, but I need more people than just me and Flynn. We need somebody to drive my vehicle away and somebody else to remain here inside with you. And somebody outside.”
She snorted. “That’s three men. Is that practical?”
“Somebody has to stay with you at all times.” He pulled out his phone and called Flynn.
She walked away to look at each of the animals. Inside her stomach still churned. She couldn’t let anything intentionally happen to her animals or her staff either, and neither did she want to die herself. She needed these men to catch this guy. Right now was a perfect opportunity, if they would act on it. She heard a sharp exclamation and turned.
“You stay here,” Rory said, pointing a finger at her. “A vehicle is turning into the parking lot.”
She froze and nodded. Urgently she said, “Go.”
He raced forward, pulling a weapon from under his T-shirt at the back of his jeans. She hadn’t even realized he’d been carrying one. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do. She walked over and shut off all the lights. If somebody was coming in, she wouldn’t make it easy for them. As an afterthought, she reached for a scalpel and popped it into her pocket. She might not have a gun, but she was extremely handy with a knife.
She walked into her office, from where she could see the road, and watched as headlights turned toward the building. The vehicle drove very slowly. The driver had to have seen Rory’s truck, had to know someone was here. Just then, the lights on the vehicle were killed, but she could still hear the engine approaching. She walked out to the reception area to find Rory standing beside the big front window.
He pointed a finger at her and said, “Stop there. I don’t want them to see you.”
She nodded and retreated to the surgery area where she had a view of the action. She also had a hell of a lot of weapons here. Ones she knew how to use. She pulled up a chair close to the cage holding the dog she’d found tonight and sat in the darkness.
And waited.
The trouble with waiting in the dark like that was her mind created a bogeyman at every corner. She found herself shrinking into the chair as if expecting somebody to burst in at any moment. She wanted to send Rory a text. Ask if everything was okay, but she was too afraid she would alert the intruder to where he was with a ping of his phone. She didn’t want whoever was in that vehicle to actually gain access to the clinic.
Surely, with both Rory and Flynn here, she’d be safe. But the longer the silence went on, the more her heart slammed against her chest, and the more she could barely breathe.
When one of the dogs beside her yipped, she almost fell off her chair in fear. She was just like an elastic band, stretched so tight she was ready to spring forward. She took several steps, tapping her chest lightly, trying to calm down. She wished somebody would say something. Just as she was about to sit down again, she heard an odd spitting sound, followed by a crack of a window and the sound of shattered glass.
She froze. What the hell was that? Her nostrils flared. She tilted her head slightly, sniffing the air—and catching a whiff of gas. She raced to the surgery doors and hit the lock. As part of the renovations she’d completed after purchasing the clinic, she’d deliberately put in sliding glass doors with a seal and locks to go along with a decent filtration system. The animals were safe inside with her. She walked over to the control panel.
The air-conditioning system hummed as it brought fresh air inside and circulated around the room. With any luck they’d be safe until the men could take these guys down.
An arm slammed against the glass door. A muffled cry escaped. She slapped her hand over her mouth as she stared at the frosted glass. He didn’t slam again, and her cell phone didn’t go off with a message saying it was safe to come out. She worried about Rory. He’d have told her not to bother, that he could look after himself. But she wasn’t so damn sure. She was afraid that had been some kind of smoke bomb or tear gas and wondered what was going on out there. She didn’t have Logan’s number, but she did have Ice’s and Levi’s.
She quickly sent Ice a text, warning her something had happened and about the potential gas. And that she’d had no contact with either Flynn or Rory. Her response was immediate: Stay where you are. Don’t move.
Louise texted back what she’d done—locking herself into the surgery area with fresh air flowing to keep the animals safe. She warned Ice that gas was in the main part of the clinic. Ice’s response read We’re on the way.
Pocketing her cell phone, Louise slipped back against the cages and stared at the sliding doors. The frosted glass wasn’t intended to keep intruders out. It created a vacuum-sealed door for the HVAC system she had put in specifically for this surgery area. Bone dust and animal odors could be potent over time. Not in the interests of anyone’s best health to inhale either. This surgery area had no windows. The system was intended to send the air and dust up through the HVAC system, filter it twice before expelling it outside—not into the reception area.
By the same token all the supply cabinets and medicines were behind her in case of breakage. Those fumes, individually or collectively, could be toxic in great quantities. As far as she could see in the darkness through frosted glass doors, everything looked the same as it had been. If somebody wanted to get in, they’d have to come through the opaque sliding glass surgery doors.
It wasn’t the best layout. Normally this area was open so nurses had easy access to what they needed to refill the trays for surgery and to bring in patients throughout the day. It was a busy part of the clinic. She did surgeries two days a week, and, during those times, the back of the clinic was a well-oiled system.
Just as she started to relax, the door rattled. Somebody was playing with the lock. She shifted against the rear wall. She didn’t know who the hell was there, but they hadn’t exactly called out to see if she was okay. With a scalpel in her hand, she sidled up beside the door and waited.
*
Rory wasn’t expecting the gas canister when it smashed through the window. For some reason that thought had never crossed his mind. Maybe it was because animals were in here, and he would never have endangered them. Or maybe he hadn’t realized the level of the people involved in this drug business.
Now that he knew, well, that was an entirely different story. The gas canister had already released the bulk of its gas, but not before he managed to pick it up and toss it back out again. All that really did was let the people outside know he was in here, alive and still conscious.
He was good with that, and, with his T-shirt pulled over his face, he was already on the move. Unless they were perfectly aware of the inside layout, he still had the advantage. He crept toward the surgery doors. A couple rooms were between them, but he needed to make sure nobody got to Louise.
He’d already texted Flynn, warning him about the gas. Hopefully somebody from Levi’s compound was coming too. He’d heard two different voices. There was always a chance a third man, a silent one, lurked in the shadows.
When they came through the security system on the front door, the wires he’d put together separated. A bell went off in the background. But it wasn’t horrific. He could hear them talking, but they were too far away to actually understand their words. When he heard them laugh, he realized they understood the security system was a bit of a joke. And they were right. That was because the damn thing wasn’t finished yet. The men spread out, searching the clinic. Rory knew they’d find him pretty soon.
They were also likely to be heading for the drugs. He couldn’t allow that to happen. A man came around the corner and, accidently or by luck, turned his back to Rory. He threw his arm around the man’s neck, choking off his air as Rory kicked his feet out from under him. As he went down, Rory helped him fall and smashed his head into the floor. The gunman was out cold. With a grim smile, Rory bounced to his feet, checked the man for weapons and pulled out two pistols. He tucked them into his waistband, and, after making sure the man was out cold, he crept forward, looking for the second intruder.
“Mark? Where are you?”
Rory could hear the second man call out again.
“Mark? Where are you?”
When there was no answer, Rory slid to the side and dropped to the floor. His eyes still watered from whatever gas they had used. He struggled to breathe. His T-shirt remained over his mouth, but the gas was taking its toll. The other man didn’t wear a gas mask though, so whatever they had used wasn’t that toxic. It was probably knock-out drugs more than anything. That would just help the unconscious man stay that way.
Good.
Rory crept over toward the reception area and watched a shadow pass through the first patient room and head toward the main section in the back, where Louise had a large unused room. On the other side of that section was the surgical theater.
That was where Louise should be, but then he didn’t trust her to stay put just because he had told her to. He crept through another patient room. It was dark, and he didn’t dare turn on a light.
A noise sounded to his right, like the intruder had tripped over a chair and fallen. His arm slammed into the frosted glass doors as he tried to catch himself before going down.
Rory was on him in an instant. Rory grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him against the wall. Then he dropped him, but the intruder flipped, rolled over and kicked up. Rory saw stars as he took the blow on his jaw. He fell to his knees, bringing his legs up ahead of him, but the asshole was already on him. Still seeing stars and stunned from the gas, the guy was now choking Rory. He shoved his thumbs into the man’s eyeballs. Free now, Rory rolled out of the way and bounced to his feet. He was coughing himself now, kicking and punching, twisting, rolling and fighting for dominance. Finally he got a good solid kick into the man’s groin, flipped him and, with his right fist, hit him hard in the jaw.
Silently the man’s head rolled to the side. He was out.
Rory sat there for a second, gasping for air. Finding it hard to see, but knowing that Louise was on the other side of that glass door, probably unconscious, he struggled to his feet. Outside the door, he dropped to his knees, pulled out his tool kit and picked the lock.
And pushed it open.
“Louise?” he croaked and then coughed, the gases forcibly expelled from his lungs. Instantly he felt her arms around him.
“Come in here,” she cried, pulling him forward. “The air in here is clear.”
As soon as he was in, she slammed shut the door and locked it. He lay on the ground, breathing the fresh air that flowed through the filtration system. He opened his eyes and rubbed at them, but Louise grabbed his hands.
“Don’t touch them,” she said. “I’ve got something for them.” She ran over to a cabinet and came back.
Holding his eyes open, she squeezed some drops into them, and they felt better. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and said, “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I’m fine. How are you?”
He shrugged. “I’ll be okay.” They heard vehicles outside.
“Where’s Flynn?” she asked with a frown.
Rory shook his head. “I’m not sure. I expected him to arrive anytime. I’ve got two unconscious men out there, and I need to make sure they stay that way.”
She gasped. “Is that our or their reinforcements?”
Just then her phone went off. She answered it. “Ice, we’re in the surgery room. I’ve got Rory here. No sign of Flynn. Two men are down somewhere in the clinic.”
“Okay, we’ve got masks. We’re coming in.”
“Be careful. We don’t know if there is a third man,” Rory yelled.
“I heard him,” Ice said to Louise. “We’ve got it covered.”
Louise put away her phone and sat beside Rory. “How are your eyes?”
“Better than my throat,” he said with a groan.
She got up and poured him a glass of water. “You need to get checked out at the hospital.”
He gave her a wry look. “I’d normally be okay with that, but, chances are, we’ll have the deputies here soon, and the same nightmare to contend with all over again.”
She shook her head. “When will this end?”
“Soon. Very soon.” Just then a rap came on the glass door. He could see Ice’s face pressed against the frosted glass. Not enough to be clear, but, with her long braid hanging down in front, it was pretty obvious who it was.
Louise unlocked the door, and Ice stepped through, taking several deep breaths of the air. She smiled. “Nice HVAC system.”
“It is. I always had a thought at the back of my mind,” Louise admitted, “that I could do some specialized work here.”
“What kind of work would you need that kind of filtration system for?” Levi asked from behind Ice.
Louise’s face lit up when she saw him. “I was looking to do prosthetics for animals,” she explained. “A couple clinics in England do some amazing work. But it entails a lot of bone grinding. And in that case—well, bone dust is deadly for so many reasons.”
Levi and Ice looked at her in interest. Rory just lay on the floor and smiled. He really liked big thinkers. People with plans. Grinding bones didn’t sound like fun, but prosthetics for dogs, cats, horses, … hell yeah. Using one of the benches beside him, he struggled to his feet.
Ice checked him over. “How’s your throat?”
“Burning but I’ll be fine,” he said shortly. “Any sign of Flynn?”
“We have Merk and Logan out looking for him.”
“What about the vehicle? Do we know anything?”
“Not yet but we will in a few minutes,” she said with a smile. “Harrison’s on that right now.”
“And the deputies?”
Levi laughed. “On their way. You are allowed to leave something for us to do, you know.”
Rory shook his head. “We were actually arguing about whether we should leave or stay.”
“What was that about picking up a dog on the road?”
Rory explained what happened. He finished with “I think it was deliberate. Hoping she’d see the animal, bring him back here, so they could return and hit the clinic with her inside.”
“Chances are they were already waiting for you then,” Levi said. “They just needed time for their reinforcements to get here before you left.”
Rory nodded. “That’s what I figured too.” He turned to look at Louise. “You’re sure you don’t have anything else here they might want?”
She shrugged. “There’s a lot they might want, like the legitimate drugs used for animals. But the only case of that crap of theirs is at the sheriff’s office. Only they don’t know that, and that’s a problem.”
“By the time we confiscate their cell phones, and check out who and what these guys are, we should get that message across.”
“They didn’t come here from some local gang,” Rory said. “Not with gas canisters like these.”
“Those are actually police-issue tear gas canisters,” Levi said. “Unfortunately they can be bought all over the place, even on the internet these days. They’re not even military grade.”
“Right.” Rory stared down at the thing in Ice’s hand and frowned. “So that’s of no help then.”
“Only in that it tells us these guys are serious,” Ice added, “and they’re not letting this go. I don’t know if they were after a full shakedown of the clinic, or they just wanted her. However, if they got her, they’d have gotten what they needed anyway because they’d have tortured her to get the information.”
“That would have taken all of two seconds,” Louise said drily. “I would have handed that information over immediately.”
In the background, they could hear sirens. Rory, still feeling the effects of the gas, started choking again.
Louise came to his side. “He needs to get his lungs checked out at the hospital,” she said.
Rory shrugged. “I’ll be fine.”
Louise snorted. “You can be as tough and macho as you want, but you either go to the hospital or I can help clear your lungs here if you choose to be stubborn.”
“If he doesn’t want to go to the hospital, that’s fine,” Ice said. “What have you got for his lungs?”
Rory sat back as the two discussed treatment.
“The only thing he really needs is oxygen …” Louise pulled out a large clear plastic mask. “I use these on the larger animals. It won’t fit well but hopefully will do the trick.” She handed it to Ice while she hooked it up to the oxygen tanks built into the surgery room.
Ice placed the mask over his face, covering both his nose and mouth. From the size of it, he figured Louise must use it on a damn horse. Within minutes, clean fresh oxygen flowed over his face and into his lungs. He took deep gulping breaths, loving the feeling as the air hit his lungs. As soon as it did, he coughed again. He pulled away the mask to clear his air passages, then put it back on again.
With Louise and Ice standing watch, he was forced to do that several more times as he expelled the bad air from his lungs. At last he took several deep breaths and wasn’t overcome with coughing. He smiled and said, “Thank you. I feel much better.”